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Swine Flu Is Here

I met with my doctor today to review my chronic condition, an Oxford-educated specialist, and a charming, elegant, and unflappable man about as likely to panic as the Rock of Gibraltar. He advised me to get the new three-in-one influenza vaccine soon, as he has seen the latest government estimates. While the current rate of infection is approximately 22 per 100,000, it will grow tenfold or more in 2011, and is set to overtake the epidemic numbers seen at the pandemic's height in mid-2009. As healthy people under the age of 65 can die from this influenza, it seems worth being concerned. However, vaccines, too, have their risks, however slight (and somewhat vague). I am therefore, as a hypochondriac of sorts, between a rock and hard place.